Today I want to show you how 2 fellow readers of this blog were in a fix when it came to their hard-earned money and they were struggling to get justice from their respective banks and financial institutions. They mailed me and commented on this blog and when I saw those comments, I thought – “lets see what can be done!” This is a post where you can learn what kind of things can be done if you are having issues at times and then try to resolve it further.

Case 1: How an old lady got justice from ICICI Prudential

Some months back an old lady named “Nita” commented on this blog how ICICI Prudential representative have taken advantage of the situation and played around with her money. It was not a case of miss-selling, it was actually unethical behaviour (or call some kind of fraud). So I decided to help her in whatever way I could. Here is what she wrote 

Dear Sir,

I was holding ICICI Prudential Life Time Super policy (Policy number: XXXXXXXX) and have already paid two premiums. The third premium was due for payment in July 2009. Due to delay, there were frantic calls from ICICI Bombay office for making the payment. On 28th December 2009 when called again from ICICI Prudential Bombay office, I requested them to get the premium collected as assured by their officials at the time of issuing the policy. I was told by their office that a representative would come on 29-12-2009. On 29th Mr. K N Pandey mobile No XXXXXX a representative of ICICI prudential came and after verifying his credential from Dehli office in-charge Mr. Mratunjay Sharma Mobile No XXXXXXXXXX  a cheque for Rs.50000/- was given. He demanded that a photo and a signed copy of form was required to get the lapsed policy restored. these were given to him.

Later on, finding that instead of a receipt of the premium paid for the old policy (policy number: 05225842),a new policy “LifeStage Assure Pension- policy number: 13129468″ was delivered. This was issued under forged signature.(photocopy attached). Soon after the receipt of the new policy in 3rd week of jan-2010, the matter was reported to the company’s representative Mr. K.N. Pandey and his immediate superior Mr. Akhilesh Gupta Financial adviser of ICICI prudential Mob. no 09838506002 and Delhi office Mr. M Sharma. They accepted their mistake and I was assured that the new policy will be closed and the amount of the premium will be transferred in my old policy no: 05225842.I trusted them since they begged saying that if the matter was reported, they were to lose their jobs.

But, having failed in my efforts the matter was reported to the chairman ICICI Prudential in September 2010. I never got the reply but when I presented all the documents before ICICI Prudential Manager at Kanpur office I was given a copy of reply sent by the Bombay office in Sept 2010.

(photocopy attached)

The local office after having gone through the records and finding my complaint genuine, they again sent the complaint to Bombay office and I was asked to wait. Again there has been no communication from Bombay office but on my approach to local office I have been given a copy which is ditto of the previous reply.(photocopy attached).  On the advice of local branch manager to save my one Lac rupees deposited earlier in policy No. 05225842, I have borrowed the money to deposit Rs ONE Lac i.e. two years premium to get the policy revived. The amount has been debited from my account on 26/05/2011 but I have not yet received any communication regarding revival of my policy.

The fraudulently (under forged signature) issued new policy No 13129468 is still hanging in abeyance and my Rs.50000.00 is at stake. Since I am an old lady with meager source of earning I cannot afford to operate two policies and that’s why I have been trying to get the amount of the second policy credited for the old policy. Since now, I have come to know about IRDA can help in such matters I therefore request your good office to look in to my case and help me to get justice.

Yours faithfully,

NITA TRIPATHI
06/12/2011

What I did

I tried to find out who is the current CEO of the company and tried to find his email id, but failed. Then I found him on facebook and left a message to him (didn’t get any reply). I then contacted a PR agency in Mumbai who earlier contacted me on behalf of ICICI Pru and I knew they must be knowing someone at ICICI Pru who could help the lady. This worked and I got a mail from ICICI saying that they will work on this and get back with their response. I replied back to them on email like this –

If it was a normal misselling case , I would have let this go , as misselling is same as misbuying . but here it was fraudualant activity and without any reason the old lady is harrassed and she is not able to do anything . Please take up this case with priority and more than professional grounds , help the lady on human ground . It would be appreciated if you can follow up with the concerned people who were send to collect the money from lady and even their seniors .

I am cc’ing Mr Kunal Pradhan and lady Nita Tripathi .

Thanks
Manish

The case was resolved and Lady got her money back

After that there was no activity for few days and some weeks back I got a mail from the lady and she confirmed that the things are resolved now.

Dear Mr Manish,

Wish you a VERY HAPPY HEALTHY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

I am extremely sorry for not writing to you earlier about the progress in the matter. In fact after your intervention, ICICI Pru immediately responded. They have now cancelled the mis- sold policy and have credited the amount to the old policy account after getting the formalities completed locally.They have issued the receipt and provided the number by email but I have not received the hard copy as yet.

Honestly speaking I have no words to express my gratitude and thanks for all the help. I pray to GOD to give you all the success and happiness in life.

Thanks once again.

Nita Tripathi

Case 2 : How Bharat Kamble got his Rs 24,000 back from ICICI

One reader Bharat Kamble was struggling to get back his money from ICICI Bank. His credit card was charged twice and ICICI was making him run around here and there without any valid reason. Here is the problem he was facing. I thought of using twitter to communicate this issue to ICICI bank and ask them to act on priority.

Within 24 hours, I got a message from ICICI stating a reference number and they asked Bharat to reply back to ICICI and mention that code number in the message subject (I guess they take it with priority and seriousness). Bharat did exactly that and then he got his money back. I asked him to write a testimonial for us and here is what he sent back in email (problem and solution both).

Dear sir,

I am a 29 year old Geotechnical enginner from mumbai. I am planning for migration to Australia and have already applied for an Australian PR (Permanant Residence). On 21st June 2011, i have paid the fees for PR application to the IEA (Immigration Engineers of Australia). The amount was Rs. 24603/-. I gave the details of credit card in the application form and the amount of Rs. 24603/- was deducted from my ICICI credit card. This amount was reflected in my July month statement. Later in the August month statement i saw the same transaction been done again on 22nd July 2011. I called up to the IEA department for clarification. They said that the first transaction was unsuccessful and hence they did the second transaction which was successful.

I told them that the money has been deducted for both the transactions. They said that ask your bank to talk to our bank (commonwealth bank) for the unsuccessful transaction, also they me the reference file number for the failed transaction as a proof. Later daily i had been calling the customer care of ICICI bank for the problem and solutions. but i got only one answer from all of them stating ” its the mistake of commonwealth bank and they have to sort out the issue. The only alternative for this is that to raise a dispute against this amount”). I was really very tensed and worried about this problem. I showed them the reference file number which was given to me by the commonwealth bank , but they said that we cant check this reference number.

On 23rd Sep. 2011, i file a dispute against this transaction with ICICI bank. They told me that it will take 45 days to solve this dispute and also the result make not be in your favour. i was really suffering from a bad time in that period. after 45 days on 18th november, i called the CC of ICICI bank for the status of the dispute and they said that it will take another 45 days to solve the issue.

Finally while surfing on the solutions on internet i came across “jagoinvestor”. I read all the comments (some of the problems were similar to mine one but not the same exactly and thought lets put up my problem over here. Within 24 hrs i got a valuable feedback from Mr. Manish Chauhan. He gave me a code number and said that put this in the subject matter and send this email to [email protected]. I did the same thing and after 3 days i got a reply to that email mentioning that the amount has been debited on your account. I felt like my feets were not on the earth. I was relaxed and happy.

What should i say about this guy. I am very thankful to him.
I would like to inform you all that beware of such kind of theft and use of credit card has to be limited.

 What you can learn from this?

This post was to show you that one should reach some key people in the company and then communicate the issue to them. Just talking to customer care wont help. Reach to CEO, MD directly, mail them and expect some help. Leave messages on twitter or facebook pages of these companies. At times it works. However I am not saying that this will always work, but nothing to lose if you try!